


Dark red lines

by Buildyoudown



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Fighting, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Illness, M/M, Red String of Fate, Soul Bond, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-08
Updated: 2020-06-08
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:15:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24605281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Buildyoudown/pseuds/Buildyoudown
Summary: Harry goes to visit Ron in the hospital after a minor work injury and stumbles upon someone he wasn't expecting.
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter
Comments: 3
Kudos: 313





	Dark red lines

**Author's Note:**

> I know nothing about science or medicine or hospitals so if any of this is inaccurate it doesn't matter.

He was lost of course. The hallways led around strange corners and did not seem to be leading anywhere. 

He’d told Hermione he was getting coffees for them, but now he wasn’t even sure where the closest elevator was. And that had been over twenty minutes prior. But how the hell was he supposed to navigate this insane maze? With oppressive lighting and low ceilings. It wasn’t as if he spent a lot of time at St. Mungos. A lot of aurors were wounded in work but he never ended up going into auror training. Ron had though and had done exceedingly well. He’d been injured a handful of times in the past five years but Harry never navigated the hallways without Hermione, and she always appeared to know where she was going.

The past twenty minutes had been a winding path of matching doors and no signs that were particularly helpful but finally, he saw a nurses station ahead of him. 

He walked quickly to request directions but before he could reach the waist-high counter something in the room he passed caught his eye. He stopped and turned back, tilting his head to see what that flash of white had been. 

In the dim room, a man with white-blonde hair sat in a chair facing the window. He was eerily thin, Harry could see that from the way his shoulder blades poked through the blanket around his shoulders. It had been months and this strange change in the appearance of Draco Malfoy was enough to stop Harry in his tracks. 

He turned his head to the nurses' station to see the young woman manning it preoccupied with paperwork of some sort. Stepping as shallowly into the room as he could he managed to hook a finger on the metal folder on the wall. Then he retreated around the closest corner for inspection. 

He wasn’t sure what he expected but his heart was beating with surprising anxiety and his eyes rang a little. Whatever it was a sign in the hall that read ‘terminal ward’ and had not caught Harry's attention the first pass by, promised it was not good. 

He ignored the lump in his throat and opened the chart. He didn't understand most of what he was reading, it seemed to be stats at certain hours of the day and a list of potions that had been administered. That told him very little but he finally got to the section at the bottom with the diagnosis.

‘Soul bond severed’ 

Something about the phrase tugged at his mind but he couldn’t pull an explanation out. He tiptoed down the hall and replaced the chart. Draco hadn’t seemed to even shift in these few minutes. He strode to the nurses' station and caught the attention of a young woman, smiling brightly in greeting. Her face had dropped momentarily in shock before she reined herself in. She greeted him before he could speak.  
“Mr. Potter, how can I help you?”, her posture was rigged now. Harry sighed internally at the reaction. As accustomed to it as he was, it continued to be bothersome. But he needed to get some answers from her. 

“Hi there, I came to visit a friend of mine”, he gestured behind himself, “And you see I don’t know much about magical medicine and I wondered if you could explain his condition to me a bit more so I don’t have to burden him with these kinds of questions.” He kept his smile somber.

“Of course! Who was it you’re here to visit?” She looked eager to help. 

“Draco Malfoy? It was room 408. I feel foolish not knowing what it means to have a soul bond severed.” 

Her eager expression dropped at his words, “Oh, Mr. Malfoy. It’s so upsetting,” she kept her voice low, “it’s especially rare for it to happen I don’t blame you for not knowing. For most people, we go through life without even noticing the subtle clues drawing us to our destined partners. We feel drawn and there is no real reason to reject this feeling. But sometimes one of these people rejects the feelings, they reject the connection entirely and the connection severs. It has to be strong and emotional from what I understand and unrectified it becomes deadly. It happens so rarely we don’t know much about it.” She stayed professional but she must have noticed his eyes widening and brows creasing. Internally his heart had dropped to his stomach and heart painfully, “I, myself, don’t know the exact details of what happened but he isn’t doing well. I think he could have longer but his will to live has been wounded too.” Her smile was tense as the seconds passed. 

“Thank you.” He spoke at almost a whisper not entirely sure would come out, “um is there a bathroom” he cut himself off. She nodded hurriedly and gestured farther down the hall. 

“On the right.” 

He had to hold full control over himself as to not run, his stomach turned sickeningly and his vision was going out of focus. He burst loudly through the door as the memory came over him in full force 

\- - - - -

“I don’t understand?”, Draco shouted after him. 

“I just can’t do this.” Harry's voice was wavering as he walked quickly to the door. 

“Would you be so kind as to elaborate? What, are you that ashamed of yourself?”, Draco was right behind him, not letting up, “I should have fucking known you’d be too deep in the closet for this. Everyone thinks you are so bloody brave and perfect but you are just a scared child,” He was angry and knew exactly what buttons to push. 

Harry felt the guilt in waves. Draco had been so vulnerable and shared his feelings with him that night. 

It had been building for weeks, Harry couldn’t stay away from him. He owned a broom shop now and Harry found himself there multiple times a week. They had dinner and drinks a half dozen times but nothing had happened. At least nothing that counted. Harry had told himself over and over again that the night he pulled Draco into a kiss outside the bar, and let his heart fall into his hands, was an accident. He was drunk and lonely but it meant nothing. They hadn’t spoken of it and Draco didn’t act any differently. 

That night Draco had invited Harry to his flat for dinner instead. Over candles and nice wine Draco told Harry he loved him and had for years. Harry's brain had short-circuited. In the years since school, he hadn’t dated at all, much less been in love. At that moment it was the scariest thing anyone could have said. So he said nothing. At that moment he had to face everything he had been ignoring. The way he felt, pretending it was something else because everything had been so hard already he couldn’t handle anymore difficulty. He hadn’t even told his therapist or said it to himself that he might like men. Before he knew what he was doing he realized his chair had tipped over onto the floor. 

“No!”, was all that came out of him. He wasn’t sure what he was saying no to. But then Draco was yelling at him what he knew was true and he had been quiet and calm so long that he became loud and cruel. 

“Maybe I’m not scared of anything! Maybe I just don’t want you.” It was a lie. He was scared and wanted it so badly. But Draco stopped in his tracks and Harry was out the door before he could say anything else. 

\- - - - -

Now the night he hadn’t been able to ignore was coming back to haunt him. He leaned on the sink, a frightening parallel to years prior. This time Draco wouldn’t take his place and offer anything. And it was all Harry's fault. He was crying now, the idea that Draco was dying and it was probably his fault. His breath was coming quick and shallow. His ability to see the world narrowed and he clung to himself, falling to the floor and holding on as tightly as possible. 

He managed to calm himself for the first time. In one of the most shameful realizations of his life, he was having a breakthrough. That was ridiculous. 

Seconds later he was outside Dracos' room again trying to speak. 

“Draco?”, his voice was so quiet it wouldn’t have surprised him if he hadn’t heard him. But if anyone this ill was able to still be impressive it would be Draco, he turned his head slowly toward the voice. He was trying to look back behind him and it looked uncomfortable. Harry's legs carried him closer to ease the strain on his neck. He knelt in front of him grabbing his thin cold hands without thinking. Another tear fell when he saw that Draco looked scared, “D-did I do this to you? Were we bonded? Did I break it?” 

“Don’t assume you hold that much influence over me, Potter.” It sounded like his words but his tone held nothing of the spite Harry expected and that was all the confirmation he needed. His head bowed and leaned on Dracos bony knee, “You have no reason to be here”, he had to pause to breath, “they obviously have no idea what’s wrong with me. There is no chance you were bonded to me and if we had been you couldn’t hate me as much as you do.”

Harry lifted his head, noting the tears had left spots on Dracos blanket, “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. You were right I was scared. I love you and I was lying to myself.” 

Dracos' eyes had grown huge the longer Harry babbled at him, “You needn’t need to say these things to try. You think you can save everyone but you can’t save me by lying.” His voice was so weak but the chill was there.

“I’m not lying.” He sat up fully and leaned in quickly before Draco could protest. He caught his beautiful warm lips with his and kissed him with everything he had.

It felt like a movie, Harry noted, like there was wind in the air or color and warmth had again found the man he was holding. Draco was even standing now, pulling Harry to his knees. He seemed surprisingly strong for someone who looked so fragile. Harrys hard went to the back of his head to seize his beautiful hair. Dracos' arm pulled him closer by his hip breathing heavily and pushing him back toward the wall. 

The kiss was broken by Draco first who buried his face in Harrys' neck clutching him almost tight enough to press the air out of his lungs.

It was hours later when he was lying in the hospital bed with Draco that he understood the wind and warmth hadn’t been a figment of his imagination. The shocked healer had explained to them that part of Harrys' magical reserve that healed Draco. He told them the magical community was not entirely clear on the concept and insisted Draco stay for observation even though he appeared in perfect health now. 

Normally Harry assumed Draco would have demanded he be released or simply walked out of the building but he hadn’t stopped cringingly to Harry in one way or another since their lips first met. Clearly, he wasn’t thinking about much else. They lay with their foreheads met, one hand holding the others. Draco's leg was over one of Harrys' allowing them to be entangled closer. 

“Shit”, Harry said, with no real urgency,” Hermione's going to be pissed about her coffee.” 

“You aren’t going anywhere” Dracos other hand moved to hold tightly to Harrys' bicep. There was a hint of anxiety in his voice. 

“No, I’m not”, Harry kissed him deeply.


End file.
